The house was delivered to me by developer with a lot of defects and poor workmanship-leakage, uneven cement,shrinkage; after frequent claim, the problems remain the same.

can i claim for defect laibility upon delivering of vacant possession

1) directly from developer's solicitor or i have to go thru tribunal tuntutan pembeli rumah?

2) am i need to wait after 18 months after delivering of vacant possession or can i based on quotation of contractor to claim defect liability from developer's solicitor though the renovation not yet being carried out.

pls advise.

thanks

19 Jan, 2005 22:22:50

RE:Defect liablility claim (modified 0 times)

Vince

You should write and make of list of defective workmanship in an official complaint letter to the developer with c.c. to your lawyer and the Housing Controller.

Wait for the response, later decide on next course of actions.

19 Jan, 2005 23:13:17

RE:Defect liablility claim (modified 0 times)

manzsin

Just my personal opinion as a non-lawyer and without any liability.

It has been held by Courts that developer vendors are liable for defects even extended to beyond the warranty period if the defects are serious. A case by Ipoh High Court per the late Peh Swee Chin J that a developer vendor was ordered to pay for damages for the estimated repair cost that was more than the purchase price and the purchaser was entitled to keep the land. That case involved a serious fundation sinking and the vendor developer only providing the superfecious plastering the cracks till the warranty period over. Another decision was from Kuantan high school held that purchasers were entitled to sue the vendor developer for using lower quality material and faulty workmanship even after the warranty period. I may be able to find out the citations of the cases for you, if you advise me your desire to have them by sending me an email to manzsin@yahoo.com.au.

I believe it is settled that vendor developers are liable to their purchasers for faulty workmanship and inferior material used even after the warranty period.

You do not claim from the "developer's solicitor". You would have redress from your contracting party, namely your vendor developer.

It is obvious that you are not familiar to do this claim yourself. Naturally a practising lawyer would be well placed to serve your legal needs. Of course the legal fee issue would arise. I suppose you may be able to claim through the Housing Tribunal which is a cheap and efficient way to get redress. The disadvantage is that you are unfamiliar in this area where your opponent [the vendor developer] would likely able to be represented by some one most familiar in this area than you, hence causing disadvantage to you.

Should you use a lawyer for your claim to a court of law, the damages you may get should you get judgment may include your legal fee [more likely partially than fully].

My advise is to file in complaint to the developer. I do believe the developer should have the standard defects complaint form. Usually, after you key in the complaint, they need sometime to make an arrangement to inspect and rectify the defects. Based on my experienced, after we received any complaint list, we will study it throughly and we will arrange an inspection and rectification work.

But then,I heard that some developer only recify the defects at the end of the 18 months of Defect Liability Period. If your developer only rectify the defect at the end of DLP and after the DLP the defect still there (the same old one), you should write in formally to them and c.c to your lawyer and Housing Controller. Always key in new complaint from time to time (within that 18 months) if any, so that the developer can't claim as invalid complaint after the DLP. But then, if it is due to the vandalism item (e.g Late key collection after Vacant Possesion), the developer will claim that they're not liable of replacing it.

1) You can claim if the developer didn't complete the rectification work within 18 months. But then, my personal advise is that try to negociate with the developer about bringing in 3rd party to complete the rectification work and make it in black and white. Usually, the developer will ask you to give quotation from 3rd party if you want to enggage them but then.. some developer will enggage their own 3rd party so..the main contractor will bare the cost. If you go direct to tribunal, it takes time and if i'm not mistaken you only can claim up to RM25k the most. If the cost more than that, then you have to go to court already and it will messed up everything and longer time.

2) My advise, dont do any renovation work within that 18 months. Usually if any defects happened at the renovated area, the developer will claim as invalid complaint due to renovation. Basically your renovator will be the escape goat and its upfair to them. If you want to renovate your house, please make sure your design has been approved by local authorities or else they will fine you from time to time (per anum basis).

Thank you.

aishah

02 Mar, 2005 18:01:25

RE:Defect liablility claim (modified 0 times)

Zina

I bought a house 5 years ago. Now found roof major structural defects. Before this wall crack, ceiling crack , repair and crack , again repair and crack. So we found contractor to look over the roof top.. We get this big news: maybe and suspect of roof collapse . Can I claim this to developer? Can anyone give me guide.